LETTER | Malaysian Consultative Council for Islamic Organisations (Mapim) strongly condemns the relentless and systematic murder of journalists by the Israeli occupation forces in Gaza.

The latest atrocity - the cold-blooded killing of four journalists, Hussam Al-Masri (Reuters), Mohammed Salama (Al Jazeera), Mariam Abu Daqa (Independent Arabia & AP), and Moaz Abu Taha (NBC News) - in the bombing of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, has raised the total number of slain journalists to 244 since the genocidal war began.

This is not collateral damage. This is a deliberate assassination of truth-tellers, designed to silence the witnesses of genocide and to blind the world from seeing Israel’s crimes. Targeting journalists is a direct attack on press freedom, international humanitarian law, and the very foundations of human civilisation.

Mapim asserts the following:

1. Israel must be prosecuted immediately in the International Criminal Court (ICC) for systematic war crimes, including the intentional killing of journalists, which violates the Geneva Conventions and international laws of armed conflict.

2. The US, UK, Germany, and France, who continue to arm, fund, and shield Israel diplomatically, are complicit in these crimes and must also be held accountable.

3. International journalist associations such as the International Federation of Journalists, Reporters Without Borders, and national media unions must rise beyond words of condemnation. They must mobilise pressure campaigns, legal suits, and coordinated sanctions against Israel’s regime of terror.

4. The United Nations General Assembly must immediately convene an emergency session to demand protection for journalists in Gaza and to create a binding resolution enforcing accountability.

Mapim stresses that the murder of journalists is not only a Palestinian tragedy but an attack on the global community’s right to truth. If the world allows Israel to continue exterminating journalists with impunity, it sets a precedent that no journalist, anywhere, is safe from being silenced by state terror.

History will remember not only the barbarity of Israel but also the cowardice of nations that stood idle. The blood of journalists will forever stain the conscience of the so-called defenders of human rights who choose silence over justice.

Mapim calls on all nations, institutions, and media bodies to act now. Justice delayed is justice denied - and every day of silence means another journalist executed in Gaza.

The writer is president of Mapim.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.